War Shadow
by The Rahkshi Writer
Summary: The Dark Hunters have taken most of Metru Nui from the Toa. But there is one they fear. The War Shadow. Some say he is one of the veangeful dead, others that he is a demon from another dimension. Personally, I always preferred Lumen. Toa of Shadows.
1. Chapter 1: A story you've heard before

**Well, I've been away for a long time, no doubt about that. And maybe I've been forgotten. Which is fine, because I wasn't especially well-known anyway. And this particular story is one that may well be better off if its predecessor is unknown to the reader. Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is the beginning of a giant leap for me, and one tiny footnote for everyone else. Because this is, essentially, a reboot. A retcon. That dreaded word. Or at least it is when sprinkled with melodrama. I think I've accomplished that. But that is irrelevant. I'm back, and so is Lumen, Toa of Shadows, for another crack at success. To tell a story that I failed to tell before, and this time from start to finish. For better or for worse, we will see this thing through. I am the Rahkshi Writer. And I am back.**

**...**

**With another disclaimer! If I owned Bionicle, I'd have been fired for dropping a storyline halfway through, my OCs salvaged by LEGO from the wreck of my career to be passed on to whoever took my place, and I've have been thrown into the Pit by the fans. Luckily, I don't (never thought I'd say that!), so all my OCs are mine, bar a tribute appearance by a character I borrowed on the basis I'd write a good story with her. Sorry about that one...**

**TRW**

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><p><span>Chapter 1: A story you've heard before<span>

The perfect prison. That was what its jailor, Hydraxon, had called it. Rather more advanced than the Pit and not needing to be beneath an ocean of water that mutated its inhabitants to trap them more effectively than even the Pit to contain them. Although Hydraxon had said this at a press conference, and there had been a degree of sarcasm, it was still a formidable construction. Its strength lay in the fact that every cell had been custom made for its eventual occupant. A list of the most dangerous beings had been carefully compiled and their prisons constructed, just in case they needed to be brought in. In the event that someone had ever been missed from the register, their prison could be constructed quickly enough. Such was the case for their latest prisoner, acquired several months ago. Held in hard-light chains suspended from a sphere ten metres in diameter and embedded with bright floodlights, leaving not a single shadow for the being to hide in. It didn't move, but hung motionless in the searing light. Its wrists and legs had been seared beyond feeling by the hard-light chains, and its head hung lifeless, its eyes dark. It had fought longer than most, cocooning itself in a cocoon of shadow for almost a week. But it couldn't have lasted. Eventually, he had run out of energy, and broke like all the rest. Now he waited. Most of the jailors reckoned he was simply waiting for death, like all the rest, but some, who had heard stories of what he'd done, and seen him as he came in, thought he might be waiting for something else. An opportunity... but for what no-one knew, or dared to guess.

"Lumen?" the voice pierced Lumen's stupor, causing him to stir. Not actually stir, of course, since he couldn't move, but his mind roused itself from its slumber to examine this intrusion. "Can you hear me?" He paused. He wasn't interested in engaging the voice just yet; still trying to figure out who was talking to him without admitting he was actually listening. He was tempted to simply ignore the interrogator and go back to sleep, but then he realised that, whatever it was, it wasn't really there. It was... inside his head? No, not exactly... just not quite... in this reality? In spite of himself, he opened his eyes and raised his head. And what he saw made him stare. A silver and ebony apparition stood in front of him, stood on thin air, and was watching him. She, at least she thought it was a she, looked like a Toa, but there was something else, not something he could see as much as something he could sense, that she was far more than that. A part of him shrank away from this thing, in possession of far more power than was natural, but the rest was intrigued. What did this thing want with him? "Oh, so you are listening. I did wonder if I'd come all this way for nothing. As yet, you're still failing to impress, I have to admit."

"You broke in to tell me you were unimpressed? That sounds like something I'd do." Lumen croaked.

"It's a little easier for me than you, I should think. But that's why I'm here. I have a job for you to do."

"Right, well I'm a little tied up at the moment, but if you leave the details with me, I'll get right on it if they ever let me out."

"Well there we have a problem. I'm not going to tell just any Toa my plans. I need you to prove you're the right Toa."

"Uh huh. And I am supposed to do that by doing what, exactly?" Lumen asked, feigning disinterest.

"Oh, simple enough. Just talk to me face to face." The strange Toa said airily, turning and walking away (as this was still in midair, the nonchalance was ruined ever so slightly). "I'm waiting outside the front gate." Then she faded into the light and was gone.

"Cute." Lumen said to no-one in particular. "Yep, just go and have a chat at the front gate of the high-security prison that was designed to keep people like me inside at all costs. That'll work out just fine." Still, he couldn't say he was surprised by the request. Or particularly daunted. He had, after all, been planning to escape anyway, when he'd first arrived... but he'd exhausted himself preserving himself in shadow for the precious few days it had taken him to think things over. Then he'd just slipped into a daze, he supposed. Waiting for something to come up, he remembered thinking blearily, as if there was a queue of people wanting to talk to him. Maybe he hadn't been quite as delirious as he thought... yeah, right. He had lost it. But now he'd be damned if he wasn't going to find out exactly what this mysterious stranger wanted with him. It didn't even matter if he turned it down, really. He just wanted to prove he could do it. He guessed he just wanted to please.

The guards had, obviously, not noticed the apparition that had appeared in the Shadow Toa's cell, but they had noticed him twitching and moving his head a fair bit. Now the pair who had the dubious honour of guarding the immobilised Toa were waiting to see what he did next. But they never could have guessed what he was about to do, not after so long in his cell. There was no way he could still be harbouring any power now. He'd exhausted it all in his first week. It was simply impossible. They'd broken him, they had been sure. Crushed his spirit and wasted his strength away. Tamed the shadows incarnate. But now it was clear they had been wrong, so terribly wrong... as they scrambled to raise the alarm, Toa Lumen disappeared behind an impenetrable wall of darkness that churned and boiled, and tendrils of energy coursed along the chains of hard light like electricity through wires, shattering them in their embrace. The Toa's wings cracked their shell and spread wide, but Toa Lumen was hovering under the power of his Crast now, pushing away at the walls of the room. The mask glowed brighter and brighter as the walls began to groan and, with a flare of indigo light from the mask, the floodlights shattered, crushed between the repulsion field and the wall. The walls of his former prison buckled and tore themselves apart, the cell's door exploding off its hinges, a weak point in his cage, and Lumen flew towards it, bouncing off corridor wall outside. The two unfortunate guards who had been assigned to his guard detail raised their weapons slowly, sights trained on him more out of reflex than any particular hope of stopping him. Lumen rushed straight past them, triggering his Crast as he passed and pasting them against the wall without even looking round.

Beyond this corridor, Lumen skidded into a hallway filled with a braver guard detail, which opened fire right away. Lumen threw bolts of shadow and ran in amongst them, drawing a blade of darkness from thin air and cleaving through the survivors while they reached for rusted melee weapons. He was gone before they hit the ground. He sprung from the shadows behind a group sprinting for his cell, black blades slicing through their armour. They dropped like flies. But more guards poured into the corridor, blocking his passage, and brought rifles to bear. Elemental energies of all varieties flew at him and he snatched at shadows to erect a hasty barrier. It flew along the corridor towards the guards, and shattered under the barrage. But it allowed Lumen to close the gap, and that was all he needed. His Crast threw the guards back end over end, and he snatched one of the rifles knocked flying through the air as he passed, turning and firing over his shoulder at those who rose to their feet. Then he looked at the rifle. "Neat, I always wanted one of these."

It wasn't long before he found a way out. He wrenched open a door and stepped out into the night. _Perfect._ Lumen thought. Then he realised his error. The perimeter was a good 500m away, and between him and his goal was a massive black-armoured being, armed to the teeth and pointing a Cordak Launcher at his head. It was Hydraxon himself, jailor of Lumen's prison for the last year or so. "Evening, runner. Surrender and I'll let you walk back to your cell with your head down. Fight and it'll be held high... on a pike."

"Oh, well who could refuse an offer like that?" Lumen drawled. "I'll be out of here long before reinforcements arrive. In fact I'm surprised that-hey!" Lumen triggered his Crast and sent the Cordak Rocket tumbling away through the air, before exploding high above their heads. "Now that's just antisocial. I approve." Lumen said. "But..." he said dryly as he deflected another Cordak Rocket, "I really have to go, so if you'll just move aside... or do I have to throw you?" Hydraxon responded with the remaining four rockets, fiery trails roaring towards Lumen. He fired a bolt of shadow which Hydraxon easily sidestepped and leapt back into the darkened doorway he had just come from. Hydraxon hurled an exploding boomerang into the darkness, destroying the doorway, but instead heard something hit the ground behind him.

He spun round to face Lumen as the Toa came at him from behind, a conjured blade in his hands. Hydraxon parried the blow with his wrist blades and punched Lumen in the gut. He doubled over and Hydraxon fired his back blades at the Toa, flipping them over his head, but it was a ruse. Lumen rolled under the jailers' outstretched arms and triggered his Crast, threw himself up from the ground. He hit Hydraxon with an uppercut as he flew into the air, and opened his wings. Shadows rained down on Hydraxon, forcing him down to his knees. Lumen plunged after his prey, landing feet first on his enemy's exposed back. The jailer's neck arched and he bucked, throwing Lumen off. He tumbled and bounced back up, his Crast flaring. Hydraxon was back up too and charged at Lumen, wrist blades up. Lumen conjured his sword again and the two met with a crack. Metal and shadow met in eerie silence as the two tried to force the other's defences aside to strike at their target, but neither refused to give. But slowly, ever so slowly, Lumen's sword was being forced down by Hydraxon's superior strength. Inch by painful inch, it crept down, further and further, until Lumen found the bladed claws of his opponent inches from his chest. Then his world exploded.

Three wrist blades dug into his chest armour, launched from their mounts, and he staggered back and looked down in disbelief at the blades that had impaled him. He tried to speak, but he merely croaked. Blood dribbled down from his mouth. Then he finally found his voice again. "I... I expected it would hurt more... in the end." He said, looking up slowly at Hydraxon. "I guess it's a relief to know the truth..." Hydraxon simply stared, panting slightly from the exertions of the fight. In death the Toa seemed so small. For all the precautions, he had fallen with relative ease. A single lucky opportunity. Something he couldn't predict. It had decided many battles before this one, bur even so, it seemed... irrelevant, he reminded himself sternly. The runner had been neutralised. With extreme prejudice. That was all that mattered. He stayed back. He had no intention of allowing Lumen to get lucky with some suicidal attack. The last trick of the desperate and defiant. Even now the Toa was still trying to speak."Yeah, it was pretty painless, actually." Hydraxon raised an eyebrow. Something was up here. The Toa's voice seemed to be getting stronger. In fact, he sounded practically cocky. "But, I digress." Lumen said, standing up. "Thanks for the blades, but now it's my turn."

Wrenching the blades out of his armour, he triggered his Crast and threw Hydraxon into the perimeter wall, consumed by an avalanche of masonry. Then he ran towards his new escape route, a hole in the wall. But Hydraxon lurched up out of the rubble, obstructing his path. Lumen didn't even falter, leaping up and throwing an arc of shadows into his one-time captor. Hydraxon stumbled and it gave Lumen the edge he needed. His Crast flared brightly, he flew at Hydraxon, and he impaled him with his own wrist blades, using the blades like a pole-vault, leaping over Hydraxon. Compared to the rest of his wounds, he barely noticed a slight pain on his shoulder. But he recognized it for what it was the moment something whizzed past him back into the prison's boundaries. Hydraxon tracked the whirling blade across the sky, knowing what was about to happen but unable to stop it. "If it's any conciliation..." Lumen called over his shoulder, "if you're lucky, there might be enough of your head left for a pike." Then the boomerang sailed back through the air to its master, and Hydraxon suffered no longer.

Lumen didn't bother looking round as the explosion lit up the desert night and charred armour and... other things... landed around him. His eyes were fixed on the silver and ebony Toa that was standing ahead of him, staring past him at the debris left in his wake. "That proof enough for you?" he asked, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

"Hmm." The stranger said, attempting to look unimpressed, but Lumen noticed her eyes never left him. "I don't know. I only saw you kill the big guy, and blowing him up with his own boomerang is hardly favourable when you're trying to prove you can fight."

"Uh huh." Lumen said sceptically. Then he rose to the bait. "Really? I just took out Hydraxon, the weapons master himself, and you're unimpressed?"

"Oh, he was just a Matoran." The Toa dismissed his claim with a wave of her hand.

"Right. Is that what Turaga become after they give up their 'Turaga Power'? If so, I'll skip the bit where I'm supervising headless chickens."

"No, he was... never mind. You don't exactly have much respect for the Matoran, do you?"

"You know a Toa who does? Really, actually respects them? Who doesn't believe they're helpless without the Toa? You find me one, and I'll give to a Rhode, because they're lying. Now can we hurry this up? Because either you tell me what you want or I go back and blow up the rest of the prison, because the rest of the guards are going to be coming soon, and they get so irritable if you ignore them."

"What about the prisoners?" the Toa asked.

"What about them?" Lumen asked, shrugging.

"If you kill all the guards, they'll be free. Murders and monsters, every one."

"Not my problem." Lumen replied. "If they start on me, I'll make them regret it, but other than that I couldn't care less." His silvery companion shook her head.

"You really aren't who I was looking for. It was stupid, stupid! A message from someone who doesn't exist till thousands of years after it was written, and a Toa who makes a mockery of all they stand for. I just wish I understood how..." then she smiled, and it was Lumen's turn to stare at her warily. "Oh, that could work. Yes, I think what you need is a re-education in the ways of the Toa. Maybe showing you what you really are will change your outlook." Lumen took a step back and adopted a fighting stance. "Don't do anything stupid." She warned him. "Or I'll make you regret-!" Lumen's Crast threw her end over end to land face-down in the dirt. She jumped up and was immediately jolted by blasts of shadow.

"It'll be you who regrets today at this rate. Now who are you, really?" Lumen snarled. His opponent actually laughed.

"I, mortal, am a power higher than your puny, arrogant little mind can contemplate. So..." she cancelled out gravity and Lumen was stopped in his tracks, flailing in the air. "Give up." She pulled him towards her by increasing her personal gravity, but as he approached she met resistance. Lumen's Crast was lighting up the night with indigo light, all his energies focused on pushing her away from him. She was impressed by the sheer force of will that he was able to put into the effort, but then she remembered he was an ass and slammed him into the ground, increasing gravity to the point he was forced to lie immobile on the floor.

"Ne-ne-never..." Lumen croaked, forcing his head up, vibrating with raw fury and exertion. The act of lifting his head was as difficult as climbing a mountain. "...and...Why?"

"Oh, sorry, can't tell." The entity told him, crouching down to his level and grabbing his mask in her hands. "Because that would be..." Energy leapt like lightning from her to him, and he bucked and thrashed until they winked out of existence, leaving behind a single word on the wind; _"spoilers..."_


	2. Chapter 2:But with better fight scene

**Aaand it's update time! Sorry for the delay on this one, as my beta-readers have been busy so feedback was slow. Future updates will hopefully be 1-2 weeks apart at most. Remember read AND review, as feedback is always appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: Enim era sCO lla revewoh, Elcinoib nwo ton od I.**

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><p><strong><span>Chapter 2: ...But with better fight scenes!<span>**

_3000 years ago, approximately 2000 BGC (Before Great Cataclysm)_

'The City of Legends' they called it. The greatest city in the entire universe. If you were a Matoran. There had always been a certain... reluctance to allow other races into the city. It was a Matoran city, all grandeur and pursuit of more grandeur. There were better mask-makers than the Ta-Metru refineries, their mask graveyards were a testament to that. No other Metru was dedicated to producing anything useful. Instead, it was a grand catalogue of everything, grand statues of everything, grand debating on the subject of everything, the best schools of everything. And Le-Metru, which was quite ingenious in its development of the transport systems that kept the city running, but still, just the city. Those chutes and airships didn't leave the airspace above Metru Nui. But still, decided the Dark Hunter crouching atop a rooftop, it would be a nicer base than Odina. He was looking forward to taking this place from the Toa. Even now, the place was practically theirs. They owned most of the city's territory, although Po-Metru remained firmly in the Toa's hands, where the hunters struggled to hide themselves, as did the city's central districts, where the Toa had the advantage of the Coliseum, an impenetrable fortress minutes from any engagement in the inner city. The Vortixx codenamed 'Scout' lay atop a convenient rooftop, surveying his designated patrol area for Toa patrols. If he saw them, he wasn't to attack. Instead, he would direct the nearest Dark Hunter patrol to them and let them take them out. It was a good job for him. He had no interest in getting up close and personal with the Toa, thank you very much. No, he was content to sit back and let the less useful hunters do that. However, tonight had been peaceful, slow. Nothing of interest. The city was devoid of any light in this sector, any Matoran still here trying to pretend they weren't.

But then there was a flash of pure white light from over to his left. He was blinded by the flash and raised his arm to cover his eyes from the glare that lasted for a few seconds longer before vanishing. He sighed. So much for a peaceful night. "Tunnel-Runner one, this is Gukko Sight. Do you read?" The gravelly voice of Dynamo, leader of the scout squad 'Tunnel-Runner' replied in his mind.

"How can I not with your mind-probing. Now what is it?" Scout would have rolled his eyes, but he had a job to do.

"Not sure. Saw a bright flash about half a Kio away to the north. I'm going to check it out. Follow my trace."

"Rodger. We'll meet you there, Gukko Sight." Dynamo severed the mind-link and the Vortixx hopped down to a lower rooftop before heading towards the source of the flare.

Eight minutes later, Scout cautiously approached the lip of another building and peered over the edge. This time he was sure he'd found it, due to the presence of a sizeable crater, about two bio in diameter, which had appeared in the pavement. The crater was perfectly circular and smooth. Raising himself cautiously above the low wall surrounding the building's top to have a better look; he saw that the crater's insides glowed dimly with an orange light. He saw a crystalline pattern that reminded him of the rocks he sometimes saw around the base of the Mountain, back home on Xia. If he'd been a Toa of stone, he'd have been shocked to discover that the crater was lined with an igneous rock, meaning that whatever had caused that flair had generated enough heat to turn pavement into something that would normally be produced by being submerged in magma deep underground. And then getting tossed out of a volcano. And yet without causing any damage beyond the rim of the crater. Which in turn suggested that whatever had caused this had also generated an even more powerful force to contain it. These concepts should have given the Vortixx cause to flee, even though the responsible entity was actually long gone. But he was not aware of these facts. But now, as he stood up, he threw himself back down again, he realised there was a body in the crater. A Toa, unconscious, but still breathing. And still dangerous. Normally, a lone Toa, unconscious to boot, might have been an invitation for even the highly cautious Scout to unsheathe his hunting knife and kill the Toa. But there something about this one that kept him back. Something that stayed his feet. In any case, Tunnel-Runner would be here soon enough, and they could easily take care of it. But just in case, he'd move a few buildings away until they arrived.

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><p>Tunnel-Runner arrived shortly after, their squad leader, a being by the name of Dynamo, swaggering into the clearing ahead of the other three. They were bored and ready for anything that could break up the monotony. Dynamo stepped forward and looked down into the crater. The Toa was still there. His black armour immediately picked him out as an Earth Toa, but he was surprisingly lightly built, tall and thin rather than stocky. Although it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. He was unconscious, and he was a Toa. Both were a death sentence, but together they weren't even sport. He bent over the Toa to have a better look, noting his mask. Quite a nice mask, actually. "I'll take that off your hands." He said to the unconscious Toa. "Wouldn't want to damage it when I stamp a new orifice in your head." He reached down to pry it off, and as his fingers brushed its surface, searching for purchase, the Toa's eyes snapped open, and its mask burned indigo.<p>

Lumen reacted on instinct. Vicious, corrupted instinct. He pushed his Crast to full power the moment he saw the _thing_ bending over him. It exploded off him into the air, smashing into a wall with a satisfying _crack_. Wait, what? A wall? But he had no time to contemplate just what had happened to him, because the thing wasn't alone. Three more beings, presumably its accomplices, appeared in his field of vision. Three pulses from his Crast hurled them all backwards while he leapt out of the hole. "A Steltian, a Skakdi and something I think I killed once walk into a Shadow Toa..." he chuckled as he drew his stolen rifle and fired it at the Skakdi experimentally. The gun spat shadow at the savage, who twitched and shuddered as he was riddled with shadow and dropped. Then he felt a blade at his throat. "Oh dear. I appear to have a knife at my throat." He said idly, stamping on the would-be assassin's foot. She yelled in pain and Lumen followed up with an elbow to the chest, pushing her back. He threw the Steltian trying to sneak up on him back with his Crast as he punched the teleporter in the stomach. Or at least that was where he'd been aiming. It turned out as she was much shorter than he'd expected, just long-armed. Instead, he found himself punching her in the chest, where the armour was thicker. She swept his legs out from under him and he fell to the floor, as her arms shot up, knife in hand, to finish him. Lumen instead tossed her back with his Crast, snatching the knife out of midair as he rose to his feet. She flipped as she came down and landed on her feet, unsheathing a huge blade that made the knife Lumen had stolen look like a toothpick. They stared at each other in silence for a moment. "You know, if you drop that, I could always let you live..." Lumen suggested half-heartedly. But by way of reply the being suddenly screamed in rage and charged him in a berserker rush. Lumen's hands shot up and launched a barrage of shadows, but she did not stop. Lumen didn't move a muscle, focusing all his strength into channelling the shadows. She was getting closer, cutting through the shadows, but she was tiring, slowing... she made one last desperate swing, missing Lumen's mask by inches, and collapsed, her armour smoking and corroded, and her heartlight dark. Lumen turned away and blasted the Steltian trying to creep up on him into a building for the third time, this time with a pulse of shadow. Leaving the twitching creature embedded in the wall, Lumen paused to consider his next move. That move would prove to be being knocked off his feet as he was wracked by spasms. Being struck by lightning will do that to you.

Smoking, Lumen tried to get to his feet, and made it to a half-crouch before he was struck again, knocking him back down. "Better than most, Toa. But they don't call me Dynamo for nothing." Lumen snapped his head up, and received another shock for his trouble, but not before he saw the yellow-and-black armoured creature standing before him. It looked almost, _almost_, like a Toa. But its arms, and especially its shoulders, were like an exploded view of the inner mechanics of its body, metal and organic tissue bulging out of it. The rest of its body seemed to be managing to restrain its bulging muscles... just.

"You know, you're supposed to stop _before_ your muscles explode." Lumen replied between gaps for air, slowly sliding his gun out from under him, trying to keep the Hunter distracted so he wouldn't notice. But the semi-Toa simply laughed at him, flexing his massive shoulders and sending sparks dancing across them. _Hmm_, Lumen thought, _Dynamo... could he really be generating electricity from that mess his calls his arms?_ _And more importantly, can I exploit that in any way? _But the Toa was getting closer now. "So, you reckon I need to slim down, huh? I'd agree if I didn't think you were too weedy. I bet you rattle inside your armour." He snatched Lumen up from the floor, away from his gun, and shook him like a rag-doll. "See?" Dynamo said. "And I don't need a fancy mask to toss people about either."

Then he hurled Lumen from him. Lumen smashed straight through the wall he'd embedded the Steltian into, tumbling through the darkness until he hit the opposite wall and slid down it. The hunter stuck his head into the hole to find the corpse... and every shadow in the room exploded in his face, sending him reeling. Lumen followed behind his assault, running flat out at the hunter, trying to reach him before he rose. He leapt, dagger drawn, but the hunter lashed out with a massive fist and knocked him back. Lightning chased him as he flew, but he bounced off the ground with his Crast and rose into the sky. "You can't hide in the up there, Toa." The hunter yelled, throwing his arm up. A bolt of lightning shot up after Lumen, knocking him out of the air. He plunged down, stopping millimetres from the ground. He redirected his Crast and shot forward into the hunter, swinging at his face. There was a solid crack as they collided and Lumen rebounded off him into the air, where he opened his wings and hovered above the hunter, who was panting. _So he can't keep up that light-show forever_, Lumen thought. "You're pretty out of shape for someone who spends all his time at the gym." He called down at the hunter, who he was pleased to see was looking rather more fearful than he had been before. Dynamo roared and threw another bolt of lightning at him, but Lumen was ready and dropped like a stone, bobbing back up again when the bolt passed harmlessly overhead. "'Sup, hotshot? I thought I couldn't hide in the sky?"

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><p>The young Toa whistled nervously as his feet pounded the cobbled streets of Le-Metru. He was on his first night-time patrol, and despite his reassurances to Lhikan that he was prepared to do his duty, he was terrified that any moment a Dark Hunter would swoop down on him and that'd be that. He kept fidgeting and starting whenever he heard the slightest noise, but he kept walking, fighting the terrible urge to run all the way back to the Coliseum, back to his bed under several bio of reinforced concrete and behind some of the strongest warriors Lhikan had under his command. No, he had to keep going.<p>

When the explosion shattered every window around him and lit up the night, he broke Metru Nui's high-jump record. When he landed, he was still as a statue, staring in the direction of the explosion. He should sprint back to the Coliseum now. Go and hide while Lhikan took care of it. If he really ran fast, he might be able to get back before the fight was over... he turned away, and then flinched as he heard a long, keening shriek of pain. He turned back slowly, staring into the night. And ran.

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><p>Lumen yelled as a searing charge caught his shoulder, throwing up sparks that danced across his armour. The electric hunter was taking much longer to run out of energy than he'd have hoped, and Lumen was tiring. The bolts were diminishing, yes, but they were also getting closer. "Told you should have gone to the gym." Dynamo told him, flinging another bolt. Lumen leapt aside as it cooked the body of the hunter's teammate.<p>

"Failed naming day resolution number... 267, I think. I'm so terrible at commitment." Lumen replied, dancing beyond the hunter's reach as he tried to land a punch. He finished with an impressive backflip as he dodged another shock and the pavement exploded beneath him. He landed awkwardly and pain exploded in his right ankle as he hit the ground. Dynamo loomed over him, and grabbed him with a massive hand.

"Now we'll see how well you take a proper shock." He said. Lumen screamed as the hunter pumped electricity into him, burning through his armour and frying him alive.

"Hmm. Not bad. Let's step up the voltage." Dynamo snarled, a feral grin flashing across his mask. He squeezed harder and Lumen's voice died as his shrieks became too high for his ravage throat, leaving silently screaming as he burned. Mata Nui, he could see fire. Was he actually combusting now? And just as that dire thought occurred to him, it stopped and he fell in a pile of twitching limbs as Dynamo turned away from him.

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><p>Dynamo felt the intense heat roll over him, and turned to find out who was volunteering their services as target practice. He dropped the Toa without a backwards glance. He wasn't going anywhere. Instead, he focused on... another Toa? The red and orange being was looking from his hand, where embers still flickered, to Dynamo, who was still smouldering, and back again as if unable to believe what he had just done. Too bloody right. Dynamo flexed his shoulders to build up more charge and walked forward toward the Toa, who was spurred into action by the sight of the hunter moving again.<p>

_Oh Mata Nui, I just attacked a hunter. A big hunter. That just took down another Toa._ The Toa gulped as the hunter approached him, flexing his massive shoulders and humming with electricity. The sight galvanised him into action, and he drew a metal object that looked like a paddle, but with a large hole in it crossed by a fine mesh, which flared with heat and glowed orange.

Dynamo laughed. The idiot had just pulled out a broken paddle and a small sphere. What did he hope to accomplish with that? He pulled his fist back for a mask-shattering punch, intending to knock this nuisance's head from his shoulders. Then the Toa flicked his wrist and the ball flew into the air. Caught off guard, Dynamo looked up to follow its progress, even as it began to fall back down. Why had he...? Then the Toa windmilled his right arm and the paddle collided with the ball, knocking it straight at Dynamo. Then there was a deafening crack and the tinkle of broken metal hitting the cobbles. Followed by the deafening crunch as the hunter collapsed alongside his mask.

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><p>"This isn't over." Dynamo coughed, sparks crackling over his armour as he clanked back upright, to the Toa's horror. "I am not a Toa. Not anymore. You might have weakened me, but I can still shock you into oblivion like your <em>brother<em>." There was a polite cough from behind him.

"Yeah, about that." Lumen said. Dynamo swung round, fist raised, and Lumen stepped in behind the punch, shoving the wrist blade of Hydraxon deep into the hunter's shoulder. Dynamo recoiled, clutching his sparking wound and tugging the blade from Lumen's grasp. He pulled it free and tossed it aside, then stepped forward, ready to fight. But then he stumbled. He looked the two Toa, weapons drawn, up and down.

"Alright. You win. For now." He wheezed, but before Lumen could move to finish him, he blasted the two Toa off their feet with lightning and sprinted away round a corner. Lumen sprung up and tried to give chase, but he had suffered in the fight and fell back to one knee. The fire Toa rushed over to help him up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Lumen snarled, brushing him off as he climbed unsteadily to his feet. Then he noticed the Toa was still staring at him. "What?" he asked.

"Um... who are you?" the Toa blurted out the question quickly, then looked apprehensive. "I mean, er, I've never seen you at base camp, and I guess you aren't a dark hunter, because otherwise you wouldn't be fighting with one..." his eyes wandered around the devastated battlefield "...two, three, four...?" his gaze drifted back to Lumen. "You... aren't a dark hunter, are you?"

"No." Lumen said shortly. Then turned and stalked away.

"Hey!" the Toa yelled. "Where are you going? The Coliseum's that way!"

"Why would I be going to the Coliseum?" Lumen asked. Then did a double take. His eyes darted left and right, taking in the city surrounding him. The city he most definitely had not been anywhere near before.

"Because it's not safe out here at night!" the fire Toa cried, exasperated. "In fact, there are probably more of them on their way right now!"

"More Dark Hunters?" Lumen asked. "Why would they be coming here?"

"What? You just killed four hunters, and you think that they're just going to ignore that? Every hunter who was anywhere near here is going to be on their way! Come on, we need to move!" he began to run back the way he had come, but as he turned a corner he froze, realising Lumen wasn't following him. He stuck his head back round the corner. "What're you doing? A hunter could be here soon!" he yelled. Lumen looked up.

"No, just the one." He said, his mask flaring and throwing his companion backwards as he produced a long pipe with a handle at one end and pointed it up above Tennis's head. The weapon roared and spat fire as the younger Toa flinched as he was getting up, fell down and clamped his hands over his ears. Then there was a yell and a dark shape fell in front of him and crumpled on the pavement with only the merest sigh of pain. He looked up to check that Lumen had stopped using the fire-tube and then rose slowly to his feet. Then he glanced quickly down at the body at his feet. It was dead, he could tell that much. Lumen let the weapon fall to his side. "Well, we should be alright for a while now." He said casually. "There aren't any others nearby. Of course they will come to find out exactly what happened here... what?"

"What... what was that?" Tennis asked, glancing back at the body of the Vortixx.

"What, this?" Lumen asked, waving the gun. "It's a Submachine Elemental Conduit/Ordnance dispenser, or SECOD. It can-"

"No, I meant what you just did!"

"Well, I saw it about to attack you, so I shot it first." Lumen said.

"But... Toa shouldn't... that's not..." the Toa sputtered.

"Look." Lumen said. He knew what the Toa was trying to say. He'd heard it before. "I know what the Toa code says. But I'm not a Toa, and I think it's probably better that I saved your life rather than his."

"Uh... right. I guess I should thank you then." The Toa said.

"Or better yet, you can take me to the Coliseum." Lumen replied. _Then maybe I can find out what's going on. Because I cannot be in Metru Nui. It's been abandoned for hundreds of years._

"As long as you promise to keep up and keep quiet." The Toa warned him, but he sounded more relieved than anything else. He offered Lumen his fist.

"I'm Tennis, by the way." He said, attempting a smile.

"Charmed." Lumen said airily, walking straight past him.


End file.
